From Davos to New York, data disaggregation takes the world stage

Sarah Lux-Lee

Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor, once joked that although he and Shaquille O’Neal have an average height of 6 feet, standing at 5 and 7 feet respectively, the NBA might be wise to consider more than just their average height before deciding to place Reich on the team.

Today, this sentiment is becoming increasingly central in international development. 

The importance of data in driving evidence-based development has been increasingly emphasized in development discussions.  The availability of real-time information in the developing world is growing, and development organizations are harnessing that data to better understand the needs of their constituents, and to devise policy and implementation strategies that best meet the most urgent development goals.

However, Big Data, along with the statistics it generates, often reflects broad, national averages that can paper over the experiences and needs of the most marginalized segments of society.  Just as the average height of 6 feet obscured Reich’s slightness relative to Shaq, so too the broad experience of a nation, as reflected by its aggregated data, can hide from view the needs of society’s most vulnerable groups.

The importance of disaggregating data in order to shine a light on the experience of disadvantaged groups was a common theme at two very different diplomatic events I attended in the past couple of weeks.  The first, held in Davos alongside the World Economic Forum in January, was a strategic discussion on how to engender a people-cantered approach to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The second, the UN Economic & Social Council’s Youth Forum held in New York in February, brought together hundreds of young people from around the world to discuss the best ways to engage youth to become active global citizens.  Both discussions identified disaggregated data as essential to ensuring that development practitioners can best address the unique needs of those most in need.

In Davos, the point was eloquently made by Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, who noted that “it is rare for people to be heard as individuals; they are usually heard as a collective.”  Instead, Roth calls for a human rights approach to development, requiring development practitioners to refocus on the experience of the individual in order to ensure that those facing social exclusion or discrimination are protected.  The notion was echoed by Susan Myers of the UN Foundation, who identified major attainment gaps that become evident when data is reanalysed through a gender lens.  Myers pointed to the Data2X initiative as a leading effort to disaggregate data to reveal the unique situation of women and girls in developing countries.

Data disaggregation was similarly a focus at the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum in New York, where two days of dynamic discussions emphasized the point that “youth” tends to be regarded as a homogenous monolith, masking the needs of those young people who are especially disadvantaged due to minority status, geographic remoteness, disability, gender, or other distinguishing characteristics.  Youth representatives from around the world agreed that the needs of young people cannot effectively be addressed, nor their meaningful engagement in development obtained, without a better understanding of their heterogeneous characteristics and needs.

Increasingly, development practitioners are questioning the “Big” in “Big Data”, seeking to identify trends within broader datasets to ensure that the diversity of the human experience is properly reflected.  As we pursue a new agenda for development post-2015, data disaggregation will be an integral tool to ensure that no individual is left behind.

Big Data: The development of super powers?

Daniel Cater

The new millennium has witnessed a revolution in information technology with which society is only just beginning to grapple. Exponential increases in computing power have made it feasible to gather and process information in volumes previously contemplated only in science fiction. The use of super processors and machine learning algorithms is commonly referred to as “Big Data” and its hunger is well-fed by the gargantuan information pool that is the internet.

Increasingly, experts in computing, economic, marketing, medical and security fields are experimenting with the potential of data mining and Big Data. Meanwhile, the wider community and legislators appear to be struggling to understand this continuously evolving digital capability and its policy implications.

Defining “Big Data”

Despite its popularity, the term “Big Data” does not have any firm or universal definition. Broadly, it is the collection of massive quantities of information combined with the potential to process that information to search for patterns and correlative links. Big Data values quantity over quality - it accepts non-systematic errors and irrelevance in favour of volume. In fact, pre-determined relevance has little meaning to Big Data which is primarily concerned with patterns, however random, and the correlations that can be drawn from them. It is this nebulous and undefinable reach of Big Data conclusions that invokes the imagination.       

The evolution of a Super Power?

In the new Captain America film, one of pulp comic’s most iconic heroes, clashes with the machinations of evil manipulators. The primary villain, Alexander Pierce, far from exhibiting supernatural powers, is simply an influential political figure whose tool of world domination is the very essence of Big Data conjecture. Using a computer algorithm, the ‘infinite’ resource of the internet and powerful satellite linked weapon platforms millions of potential threats to the nefarious organisation will be exterminated. In essence the Hydra organisation will exploit the demand for security in order to eliminate opposition to its own agenda of control and Big Data is a primary tool in doing so. This is the apocalyptic vision of Big Data - super processors running arcane threat prediction programs utilising the streams of personal information on the internet which arbitrarily label people as dangers for elimination. Big Data has become the super-power of the next generation villain.

Of course, Big Data is not being employed as a tool of instant world domination in the real world. However, its potential, if fully realised, will have profound impacts on our world. Big Data and the algorithms which utilise its input are still in a formative stage and its failures are as notable as its successes. Google spectacularly demonstrated Big Data potential with a Flu monitoring algorithm which accurately predicted the 2009 H1N1 epidemic; however their same disease modelling program has since disappointed. The Prism and Tempora security data mining programs have resulted in widespread protests by privacy advocates and the international community. Marketing agencies have utilised Big Data in targeting specific demographics and it has been discussed in personalised pricing schemes, where product prices are based on individual consumer capacity and demand. Clearly Big Data has arrived and is expanding in utility, capacity, scope and implication; but what does that really mean?

A change in paradigm

Privacy is identified as a fundamental right internationally (ICCPR Art 17) and has long been protected (at least up to a point) by the simple inability of anyone to utilise personal information on a massive scale due to both technological and financial limitations. Even with the vast data accessibility of the internet, the cost of both mass processing information and individually focussing data has prevented many applications. The development of Big Data processes has changed that irrevocably. From social media to online shopping, banking to communication, we constantly share most if not all of our critical and personal information. Private information given up for a specific purpose has now become an invaluable resource mined and utilised by the Big Data industry and an entire economy has developed centred around data. There is growing recognition that our privacy laws and regulations are woefully inadequate for this digital revolution.

Privacy, access, usage and data legislation must adapt to the Big Data world, otherwise the utility of Big Data will be either unrestrained or crippled by legal fetters. Big Data is transnational in nature and policy must reflect a global understanding and cooperation for a resource with global value, implications and reach. Legislation must be developed which places boundaries on what action can be taken on the basis of probabilities suggested by Big Data in order to maximise advantage but minimise the oppression of actions based on possibilities. While reforms have been proposed, and both the European Union and the United States have at least attempted to address Big Data concerns, the vast majority of law and proposed legislation is simply inadequate. If personal rights, social justice and trust in the online world are to be maintained, legislators, legal and computing experts must collaborate and address the implications of Big Data.

While Captain America and Hydra are characters from our imaginations, the implications of Big Data are not. The question we must ask ourselves is this: are we going to take responsibility for our future? Perhaps a 1940’s superhero can remind us that with great power comes great responsibility.

Image by JD Hancock under Creative Commons License.